printmania's Posts

Now there must be a reason why it works perfectly well (with the couple of minor glitches I have mentioned) on my PC but is crashing on other peoples. I can’t help but feel that you must have something else installed on your computer which is conflicting badly with the BookSmart software. I know that some anti-virus software (Norton was notorious) can cause bad conflicts – as also can firewalls. I can remember even having just simply to reverse the installation process of two programs to get the "faulty" one to work. It seemed that the anti-virus would accept a certain file if it was already on board, but would not accept it after the anti-virus was up and working.

I don’t pretend to have solutions here, but just thought that thinking "aloud" might help you to approach the problem from a different angle.

Jeremy

thanks…........ !

Janys

I have already downloaded the latest version of the software, and have just completed a redo of my previous publication to remove a few of the self-inflicted hiccoughs that were in the original. Everything seemed to go very smoothly and the issues I had found with the previous version all seem to have been addressed.

But! I just decided to go back in and experiment with the borders which are supposed to be an option around text boxes, and find that the border button does nothing at all. Where am I going wrong? It pops into action as usual for the image borders, but lies there completely lifeless for the text boxes. Am I missing something or just looking at the wrong button perhaps?

More than delete, I would like to be able to edit my posts. I appreciate that it is a bad habit, but I occasionally think of things that I would like to add to my posts after they have been submitted.. I am not talking about posts that have already been lost in the midst of several others, but the one I have just finished working on.

I have been looking for somewhere appropriate to add this comment and this looks about right.

I have just received my first publication from Blurb. Generally speaking I am delighted and recognize that any "faults" in the book are generally a result of my inexperienced choices. But then that is why I chose to publish this one to check out precisely what I needed to know with regard to quality, choices etc.

What this has definitely taught me is that it is probably best to avoid bold fancy texts unless you are using a very large font size – for instance for a title. Small "hand writing" type texts look a bit of a blobby mess and are very indistinct making reading difficult. Probably ok for a psuedo signature but certainly not good for blocks of text content. Sigh….....oh well…........ will know better next time.

Love the quality of the book generally, and really am happy with the colour production too. This is one occasion when the results have exceeded my expectations, so thanks Blurb.

J

Have to admit to being very frustrated…...... I am still waiting to see my own first printed book which I uploaded on the 9th August. I see that it was shipped on the 14th, and here I am on August 28th still waiting. I appreciate that I selected the economy mail…...... but this does seem to be outside any reasonable timing even for that. 

Perhaps a couple more days should be added to the estimated shipping times. I would rather think that it had arrived earlier than get cross because it took longer. Tell me 12 days and then I will be delighted with 10…... I am a sucker like most folks in these things! 

J

In reference to my previous post with regard to selecting text across multiple pages, I must now say that even though I am able to select text across multiple pages when the pages are full text pages only, I now see that I cannot select across multiple columns in the same page.

I have just tried this out on my table of contents page where I wanted to make font changes to the two columns. This was not possible.

Janys

Jeremy,

Just a quick word in favour of BookSmart…...... I have never seen any version that has not been offered as beta so have always assumed that the software is a continual "work in progress" and should be considered as such.

Having accepted that, I feel that we users are part of the working team to suggest and test improvements. I assume that Blurb will not be working against itself in any changes it tries to introduce to the software and will find constructive criticism helpful in the snagging process….. But equally helpful will be comments which make them aware of what IS working well, and what new or changed features are appreciated by the users.

Did I read my role in all this correctly? It goes without saying that this does not require an answer….... I am just thinking aloud…. and now have to go feed the ducks that are screaming for breakfast under my lounge window.

Janys

I have just checked out the facing page locking and the change text over multiple pages.

First and foremost I created myself some 30 or so paragraphs of "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" and plumped out about 4 text pages with it. I then used the CTRL A command to select all – starting in the first of the pages where I had inserted content….... and the selection crossed all the pages I had filled in locked or unlocked mode highlighting all text. I was then able to make all the formatting changes I wanted with regard to line spacing, text colour, font type etc. and the changes were carried across all the pages. No problem here. But using the mouse to select and highlight was laborious and inconsistent. Using the CTRL A on the keyboard, everything worked smoothly for me.

Janys

Something I would very much like to be able to do is save a single page from a book I am creating, and then be able to import that page into another book.

As far as I can see, this is only possible within the pages of the same book using the copy and paste feature. Is that correct? 

Many thanks for any help on this

J

Thanks…....... that is enlightening. I am a bit concerned about the Amazon deal though. I assume that means that you would have to up the price enough to cover their purchase policy. This would probably mean buying in bulk from Blurb to get the discounted price. Hmmm.

Since adding this post I have been looking around a bit and it would seem that I am obliged to get my ISBN codes from the Italian agency, even though my books might still be in a different language. The price of enrolling and for the codes seems to be similar to the costs you quote. And the first 10 codes are included "free" with the enrolment. Yet again, the smallest block is the same, though I did see that after the first 10 with  enrolment, the publisher is obliged to order a minimum of 25 each subsequent block. The bar codes  are not free and have to be ordered on cd or film at a cost.

To enrol the Publisher must know details and cost of the first book but if someone already has a project in mind, I suppose that is no problem. Just important to bear in mind that the ISBN processing from the agency takes about 15 days from the time they receive your documentation. This seems to be the case with the UK agency also, give or take a few days.

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to bring in your version here.

J

Just wondered if anyone has had the personal experience of applying for ISBN codes, and how simple, expensive they are.

Second part of my question may not be so easy. I live in Italy. Any books I am likely to publish will probably be in English. If I sell any at all, it would probably be to English language customers. Should I apply for the ISBN in UK (my home country) or Italy?

If I may just say that for small areas of text, justified is fine, but large areas of justified text are not "reader friendly" and do not make for a pleasant or comfortable reading experience. So it is wise to use this particular format sparingly IMHO.